Tchotchkes & Frippery

Left: Why is there so much sweater? Right: Success! Or Billy Mays.

This sweater caught my eye a few weeks back in my local charity shop. The pattern was cute, I loved the colors, but it was two sizes too big! I’m a bit bottom-heavy, so I can’t pull off the oversized sweater look like some girls can. Like many too-big shirts and sweaters before it, I wrote it off and moved on.

Then I found craftycarmencita’s tutorial for altering sweaters. I figured altering sweaters would be impossible; I thought they’d unravel to shreds as soon as you cut off the excess. But no, it’s totally doable! Her tutorial gave me confidence, so first I tried it out on a too-big cardigan that had been sitting in my closet for over a year. It was a complete success! It barely took any time at all. So today after class I stopped at the charity shop and picked up this sweater for $2. A bit of stitching later, and voila!

Keep this in mind the next time you find a cute but too-large sweater while thrifting. Even if you’re a complete novice at sewing like I am, you can do this! Sweaters are much more forgiving than Tshirts since the stitches don’t poke any visible holes (so you can pull the stitches right back out if you mess up).